Contact centers, such as Automatic Call Distribution or ACD systems, are employed by many enterprises to service customer contacts. A typical contact center includes a switch and/or server to receive and route incoming packet-switched and/or circuit-switched contacts and one or more resources, such as human agents and automated resources (e.g., Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units), to service the incoming contacts. Contact centers distribute contacts, whether inbound or outbound, for servicing to any suitable resource according to predefined criteria.
Typically, when a contact enters a contact center, an IVR evaluates the content of the contact to determine the intent(s) defined by the contact's content. As used herein, “contact” or “interaction” refers to an atomic unit of work arriving at a contact center over a particular media channel or via implementation of a specific business process (activity).
Based on the determined content of the contact, the contact may be assigned to one of a number agents or an agent queue. The agent or agent queue that the contact is assigned to is one that hopefully can address the questions (e.g., the content) of the contact. The number of agents working in a contact center can be quite large, and because of this fact it is very infrequent that the same customer is assigned to the same agent every time that customer initiates a contact.
If an agent has previously handled a contact from a particular customer, the contact center server will try to assign a later contact from the same customer to the same agent. However, there are a number of circumstances that may make this troublesome or impossible. For example, if the agent that previously serviced the customer's contact is busy servicing another contact, the contact center will search to see if any other agents are available to handle the contact. If there are any idle agents, then the contact will be assigned to one of them in an attempt to increase contact center efficiency and customer satisfaction. In another example, the agent that previously serviced a customer's contact may not be working when the customer initiates another contact. In this case, the customer will be assigned to a different agent.
Since customers are constantly being assigned to different agents it becomes difficult to make the customer feel like they are an appreciated customer rather than another number in line. If a customer begins to feel like a number, that customer may choose to take their business somewhere else that gives them specialized attention.
There have also been attempts to make an interaction between a contact center agent and a customer easier on the contact center agent. For example, customer history (e.g., purchase history, location, number of contacts initiated, questions in previous contacts, previous agent's notes from previous contacts, and so on) may be maintained in a database and displayed to an agent while the agent is attempting to service the current contact. This information may be useful for the agent when he/she is trying to service the current contact. For instance, an agent may look at the customer's purchase history and decide to offer the customer a particular product based on his/her purchase history. Any additional information that can be provided to a contact center agent prior to or during an interaction may help to increase sales and customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, outside of maintaining purchase history and customer biographical data, the amount of information provided to agents in a contact center is somewhat limited.
Many contact centers are equipped to receive video contacts or other types of contacts that include images of the customer. These particular contacts make the interaction between the agent and the customer even more personal since they can see each other and the expressions on each other's faces. In these types of interactions it is all the more important to provide the agent with as much information as possible so that they can service the contact with a personalized touch.
Agents must be responsive, energetic, and perceptive in order to provide the customer with personalized service. It is easy for contact center agents to become lazy and not put forth the effort required to give this high level of service, and as a result profits and customers may be lost. If more information relating to a particular customer were available to agents before and during an interaction, it may be easier for the agent to provide a higher quality experience to the customer, thus resulting in more sales and higher customer satisfaction.